


Recording Session

by Qwerty_2poynt0



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Alphys is the special ed teacher, Alternate Universe - No Monsters, Alternate Universe - School, And avoiding it, Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, Bilingual Character(s), Blind Frisk, Coach Undyne, Crushes, Cute, Dancer Chara, Dancing, Daycare, Detention, F/M, Female Chara, Fire Drill, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, High School, How Do I Tag, It comes later, Male! Frisk, Music, Owl City, PE teacher Undyne, POV Chara, Singing, Special Ed, because why not, church, dance class, dance teacher mettaton, english teacher sans, i think, in which Napsatblook can sing really high, in which toriel owns a daycare, minor dancetale, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2018-07-15 18:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7233754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerty_2poynt0/pseuds/Qwerty_2poynt0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was dragging my feet through the music wing on the way to my doom. As I passed one of the practice rooms, though, I heard... electronica?</p><p>On her way to detention, Chara overhears a certain afterschool recording session.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How I became the sea

**Author's Note:**

> Because Owl City is my headcanon singing voice for Frisk and this idea felt right.

   I was dragging my feet through the music wing on the way to my doom. It's not like it was my fault Professor Gaster -not to be mistaken with assistant coach Gaster or Dr. Gaster, one of the science teachers- and I had differing opinions. Or that he was, in fact, a midget like I'd called him in the middle of English. Okay, so he wasn't a midget in the sense that his entire body was... dwarfed or whatever it was that made actual midgets so tiny, but I was still taller than him, and he was twice my age. It was a perfectly valid comment to make in the middle of a literary discussion.

   Still, I was on my way to detention, and I knew for a fact it was going to be the worst experience of my life. As I passed one of the practice rooms, though, I heard... electronica?

   "Yeah, that's perfect.", said a careful, smooth voice.

   "Oh, okay.", replied a whispery voice that wobbled a bit. They sounded like boys.

   "You ready?"

   "Yeah..."

   "Okay, we start recording in three, two, --"

   There was silence, then I was pretty sure I heard a small, *click*, and the floating, dream-like noises from whatever they were using began. Then, the first one started singing.

   " _June was the lobster shell_  
_I dug by hand_  
_A haven that hid me well  
__Beneath the sand..."_

  It was his voice that pulled me in. I walked closer and peeked inside. For some dumb reason, neither of them had their eyes open. One of them had his pasty hands hovering over a setup with a bunch of dials, knobs, a set of turntables, and a keyboard. He pushed up a switch and the background tempo popped back in sharply.

   " _The wide windy waves washed in_  
_But I stayed dry_  
_The great breakers broke again  
__As I nodded off inside."_

   My eyes floated over to the boy with caramel coloered skin standing in front of a microphone as he shot into the chorus.

   " _And then_  
  _When the Empress ran aground_  
_And my eyes turned blue and green_  
_I heard a gorgeous sound_  
_And that's when it became a dream_ "

   I had no idea what any of it was supposed to mean, but his voice was wonderful, and the music was enchanting.

   " _When the sky fell in_  
  _When the hurricanes came for me_  
_I could finally crash again_  
_And that's how I became the sea_ "

   The boy at the turntables finally opened his cloudy grey eyes (or one of them at least, his stark white hair covered the other) to change the music a little more and only just noticed me standing there as he brought the tempo back and the other one moved on the the second verse, keeping his own eyes closed behind his curtain of wavy chocolate hair.

   " _I wrenched the engines off_  
    _And drank them down_  
_The depths turned the iron soft_  
_As they swiftly drowned_  
_And I brought the ocean side_  
_To its rusty knees_  
_As I felt the even tide_  
_Deep in my shallow dreams_ "

   Mr. Turntables quickly moved to change the music and kept glancing up at me nervously. I returned it with stony indifference, preferring to observe the other one; who he was also sparing skittish glances.

   " _And then_  
    _When the Empress ran aground_  
_And my eyes turned blue and green_  
_I heard a gorgeous sound_  
_And that's when it became a dream_  
_When the sky fell in_  
_When the hurricanes came for me_  
_I could finally crash again_  
_And that's how I became the sea_ "

   He opened his eyes and my heart stopped. It obviously showed on my face, because the other one sank down about two inches and looked as uncomfortable as possible as he continued messing with his setup. It was a sort of interlude and the other one lowered his eyelids over his milky white pupils, nodding in time with the music. He started singing again.

   " _When the sky fell in"_

_(When the sky fell in)  
   (When the sky fell in)_

It was obvious he was loving every minute of this.

 _"When the hurricanes came for me_  
_I could finally crash again_  
_And that's how I became the sea_ "

_(How I became the sea)_

_"That's how I became the sea"  
   (How I became the sea)_

_"That's how I became the sea"_  
  _(How I became the sea)_  
_(How I became the sea)_

Other lines from the song echoed as Turntables played around on his various doohickeys and the... blind one closed his eyes again. Eventually, the music stopped and Turntables pressed a button, which once again went, *click*, and a little red light turned off in the corner of his sound board.

   "That was... good."

   "That was the best!", the blind one smiled and turned to the other one, who was getting up from his sitting spot.

   "I agree with white-eyes over here.", I said. He jumped and his eyes flew open as he whipped his head around to face me. Somehow, his face turned and his eyes fell in just the right way to stare at me directly. He quickly snapped them shut, though.

   "Wh-who are you?"

   "Chara. You?"

   "Uhm, Frisk.", he turned his head away.

   "You're good you know."

   "I- um- thanks. Lots of people seem to think so. What are you doing here?"

   "I was- shit! He's gonna murder me!"

   "Who?"

   "Professor Gaster."

   " _English_ professor Gaster?", both the boys said in unison.

   "Yup.", I groaned.

   "Oooh, you are dead.", Frisk smirked.

   "No, you don't say."

   "Um... maybe you should... get going?", Turntables suggested.

   "Brilliant idea."

   I spun around and prepared to hoof it to the English room when I heard a dreadfully familiar whistle down the hall.

   "Oh good grief.", I moaned.

   "You've been meaning to transpose that one, haven't you, Napstablook?", Frisk said.

   "Yeah.", Turntables- or Napstablook now -replied.

   "What?", I asked.

   "Professor Gaster's always whistling the same thing, or at least it sounds like that," Frisk explained, "so Napstablook's been wanting to find a way to make it into a coherent melody."

   "Huh, I hadn't noticed that."

   The whistling got a little quieter and slower and Professor Gaster's small, stout frame rounded the corner. His unsettling cyan eyes immediately found me and he simply smiled tranquilly like some sorta maniac or whatever. Or maybe that was just me reading too much into it. The point is, I knew I was not going to be having a good time.

   "Well if it isn't Miss Dreemurr."

   "Dreemurr?", Frisk wondered, "I know I've heard that. Who is it?"

   The teacher caned his neck to look into the practice room and he... sort of brightened?

   "Hey there Frisk, what're you doing here so late?"

   "Recording session, remember? Although I guess I only told the music teacher."

   "Oh, I see."

   "Yeah, we may have distracted her a bit when she passed by. Nice of you to go to the trouble of looking for her, though."

   Okay, how could this boy make everything sound nice? I'm serious, this needs an explanation. 

   "Well anyway," Professor Gaster turned around and waved me over, "we'll be going now."

   "Uh, bye Frisk. And Napstablook."

   "Huh... she got it right.", I heard as we walked away.

   "Yeah. Anyway, we should really..."

   I stopped listening as the two of them got further away and the Professor and I rounded the corner, that much closer to my aforementioned doom. I decided to occupy my mind with Frisk's singing and wondered if I'd come across him again. Or, for that matter, why I had never heard of him. Granted I'd only been here two months, but I feel like that's enough time to have heard about the blind kid on campus who had the best voice in the world. I supposed I should thank him later for making the teacher less mad, now at least I'd probably make it out without dying. Hopefully.


	2. Dance Routine

   I shut the door behind me and sank to the ground.

   "Chara's hooooooommmme!!!!"

   "Chara? Who's Chara? I'm here to rob you.", I called into the house as I rose up from the floor. Asriel giggled from the living room and scrambled into my field of vision at the end of the hallway.

   "You were gone longer than usual."

   "Yeah, I was."

   He pouted up at me dramatically turning on his heel and marching back down the hall.

   "I saved you some graham crackers."

   "Thanks.", I replied following him to the kitchen. There was a napkin with a few graham crackers on the tiny table Mom used for the daycare kids. I picked up the snack and took a bite just as the sliding door to our backyard opened, causing the various squeals and chittering small children get up to when they run around outside to filter in, and Mom stepped inside.

   "Ah, I thought I heard Asriel calling your name."

   "Yeah. So where's Dad?"

   "Oh, sorry dear, he's a bit held up at the office."

   "Hooray. CEO business strikes again."

   "Yes, I know it's a pain to bike to dance lessons, but you'd probably get to rest more if you didn't get yourself into detention."

   "Eheh. Yeah..."

   "You were in detention?!", Asriel asked.

   "Yeah. It's no big deal."

   Mom just sighed and began to turn around.

   "Well, you'd better get ready. The teacher won't just wait for you."

   "Yeah, I know.", I said before taking another bite of the graham cracker.

   I turned around and saw the kids' finger paintings drying out. One of them had a cartoonish beach and I was reminded of Frisk. My eyes sort of settled on it as I blindly walked to the hall that led to my room. As I rounded the corner some of the lyrics almost made it back into my head.

   ..... _in_  
_Hurricanes came for me_  
_... Crash again_  
_How I became the sea_

   It didn't really make much sense. I had finished off the first cracker and set the other two on my dresser as I pulled out my dance clothes. Nothing really fancy. A black leotard, some tights and a headband. The other guys mostly just wore street clothes, but Mettaton had pretty much forbidden jeans of any variety. I quickly got changed and slipped some shorts on for the ride there, picking up the remaining graham crackers on my way out of the room. I took a bite big enough to reduce one of them to 75% of it's former size and proceeded to suck all the flavor out of it and making it soggy.

   I swallowed the honey-flavored mush and turned to the house before opening the door.

   "Okay, I'm leaving! Don't eat all the food at dinner Asriel!"

   "Bye Chara!", Asriel and some other kid called from the living room. Mom was supervising the other ones outside.

   "No promises!", my brother added as I opened the door and walked out.

   I got my bike from the yard where I'd left it after getting home from school and started pedaling, once again knocking a quarter off my current graham cracker.

    _...Engines... down_  
_...Drowned_  
_....Rusty knees_  
  _...shallow dreams_

   It wasn't very clear, but it was in my head nonetheless. Who was he anyway? Maybe he was new. But if that was so, how did he know Napstablook so well and seem to know Professor Gaster? No, he couldn't be new.

    _Empress ran aground  
   Eyes turned blue and gr-_

_Wait a second._

   I swallowed and wondered aloud,

   "How on earth does he know what blue and green look like?"

   I turned the corner and wondered if maybe he hadn't always been blind, taking another bite of my snack. But I had no idea how most blindness even worked, so I decided to just shrug it off.

    _It could've been that he didn't write the lyrics._

   I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time as I hastily swallowed my current chewed up cracker mush. 5:52. I could make it if I hurried. I finished the graham cracker and tossed the other one into the compartment in front of my handlebars for later.

   Once I took a right and passed the vacant building that nobody knows what it used to be, I sped up and narrowly missed crashing into the bike rack of the strip's parking lot. I locked my bike up and dashed into the neon embellished door to the dance studio.

   "Late again, Ms. Dreemurr?"

   "Better than being replaced!", I called to the receptionist as I dashed down the hall past the rectangular window looking into the class and threw open the door to dance room two. Like all other dance rooms, it had that gauzy-hardwood-echo feel to it and lots and lots of mirrors lining the walls. Unlike other dance rooms, however, this was only occupied by four other students and one overdramatic dance teacher who was hardly ten years older than any of us and took up about seven by twelve feet of space. Although, when you work from the middle of a strip mall, you can't really expect to be like the huge ballet/dance schools on Dance Academy or Angelina Ballerina.

   My ears were assaulted by 'Anything Goes' as Bratty, Catty, Nice, and BG looked over at me from their preliminary stretches and Mettaton turned to me and smiled.

   "Chara, how nice of you to join us.", he chimed.

   "At least I'm on time."

   As the clock dictated. I'd gotten into the room by 6:00.

   "Which means you're late."

   "Yeah."

   I slipped off my shorts and folded them next to the door- thinking it was kind of ridiculous how showbiz Mettaton had to be all the time -then stepped out of my sneakers.

   "We were just about to start the stretches."

   I found my spot on the hardwood and stood in second position. Bratty waved at me and I held up my hand and jerked it two inches forward in acknowledgement.

   Once we were done with the painful gymnastics that were the stretches, Mettaton turned to the class and asked,

   "So what shall we do today?"

   "Shouldn't we be learning the performance?", I pointed out.

   "Very correct. But the problem is, I can't find the perfect song for a five-person modern dance class."

   Mettaton was a perfectionist through and through. Unless he found something he thought was perfect, there was no way we were getting anywhere.

   "What if we like," Catty piped up, "found songs ourselves or whatever. You know, to see if we have songs you don't know about?"

   "Lovely idea dear!"

   She giggled excitedly. Sometimes I wondered if she and Bratty only attended because they had some weird crush on Mettaton.

   "Chara!", Metaton called on me. I jumped a little.

   "Yes?"

   "You always feel the need to bring your phone, how about you look through your library to see if you can find something."

   "Uhm..."

   "Come now dear, it can't be  _that_ embarrassing."

   "It's not that, it's just not the type of thing that would really be good to make a modern dance routine to."

   "We'll listen anyway."

   I sighed and walked over to my shorts, took my phone out of the pocket, and scrolled through my songs. Mostly rock and country, occasional pop song, one or two EDM tracks. EDM... No, Frisk's song was too soft- well, no, it wasn't.

   "Chara?", Nice asked, "What's keepin' ya?"

   "I remembered a song I heard just today. It could work. Although I'd have to ask the guys who made it."

   "Hm?", Mettaton wondered.

   "Well you see, I was on my way to detention today and I heard these two guys playing electronic music, so I was all curious and apparently they'd been working on a song."

   "... And you said this was at school?", Mettaton prodded. He had this weird look on his face.

   "Yes..?"

   "Remind me again what school you go to?"

   "Uhm, Mercy High?"

   "You wouldn't have happened to have gotten the names of these two, would you?"

   "They were... Frisk and Napstablook."

   "I knew it!", Mettaton exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

   "Knew what?"

   "Well Napstablook is my cousin, you see. I never really approached him on music because he's just so nervous about it, but I'm sure if Frisk is involved he can convince him to do something with it aside from letting it languish on some random CD."

   Mettaton walked over to his dance bag and pulled out his phone, proceeding to tap some buttons and then putting it to his ear.

   "Blooky dear? ... Yes hello. I happen to require your assistance. ... Well you've met Chara, haven't you? ... Oh she's one of my advanced students ... uhuh ... Well about that, I was hoping we could use that song she heard the two of you working on for a dance routine ... oh don't worry dear I'm sure it's lovely ... alright then ... wonderful! Oh thank you thank you thank you! ... Mhm. Love you Blooky, bye bye!"

   Mettaton ended the call and tossed his phone back into his bag.

   "Great news dearies! We just might have a song for our next dance routine!"

   "Yay!", Bratty and Catty cheered, jumping up and down together. Nice smiled at BG and he just sort of passively shrugged. It was obvious he was glad too, though. He was a terrible actor no matter what he thought of himself.

   "However, just so we have a sort of jumping off point," Mettaton continued, "do you know the lyrics Chara?"

   Everyone looked at me.

   "Oh, well, I mean, I don't remember it very well, but..."

   "C'mon, you gotta try!", Nice said encouragingly.

   "Yeah, besides," Catty added, "you're, like, really good at singing!"

   "What? Why would you think that? I never sing at all."

   "You apparently can't hear yourself singing along to your Panic! At the Disco songs.", BG pointed out.

   "Well- I mean...", I sighed in defeat, "Alright, but don't expect it to make any sense. For multiple reasons."

   I tried my best to extract the words and the melody from my mind and started singing the first verse.

    _"June was the... (something) shell_  
_I dug by hand_  
_A haven so hidden well..._  no, that's not right."

   "Keep going!", Nice cheered me on.

   "Okay, shush I need to remember.  
    _beneath the sand_  
_... I... I wrrrenched... the engines-_  
   No, that's the second verse. Uhm..."

   The image of the recording room pops into my head as I rummage around my memory for the words.

   "Okay, forget the next two lines, then it goes:  
    _Great breakers break and then  
    ... I nod off inside_

 _And then_  
  _then the Empress ran aground_  
_My eyes were blue and green_  
_... there was a gorgeous sound_  
_... then it became a dream_  
_Sky fell in..._  
_Hurricanes (something something)_  
_I could... finally crash again._  
_That's how I became the sea."_

   I looked up at them and they were all giving me slightly confused looks. I smiled awkwardly.

   "Yeah, I can't really do it justice."

   Just then, Mettaton's dance bag started playing about five seconds of some random K-pop song and he dashed over to it. He pulled out his phone, looked it over, and smiled.

   "Guess who just got the sound fiiiillle!"

   "Yay. I don't have to fail at lyrics anymore."

   "Well, you did only hear it, like, once.", Bratty offered.

   "I guess you're right."

   "I totally would've remembered it.", BG bluffed.

   "Alright everyone, gather round, you'll want to hear this. Frisk is just phenomenal!"

   "I can second that statement.", I said.

   Mettaton shut off the showtunes on his boom box and everyone circled around him and sat on the floor as he opened the Mp3. The same dreamy music from a few hours ago drifted out of the speakers and I sort of closed my eyes. It occurred to me that that was exactly what Frisk and Napstablook had done while they were recording and the recording room came to mind again as Frisk's voice started playing over the music.

    _June was the lobster shell_  
_I dug by hand_  
_A haven that hid me well..._

  I decided to just not listen and let the syllables and music float through my head. That and I didn't want to cringe whenever it got to a line I'd butchered. When my eyes opened around the second chorus, I looked around the circle.

   Nice had a dopey smile on his face and swayed his head from side to side. Mettaton had that plotting smirk he always got when inspiration struck him and Bratty and Catty smiled excitedly with their eyes glued on Mettaton. I just knew they were trying to figure out what he was thinking. BG was looking at everyone else trying to find the perfect way to react and I rolled my eyes. He could just genuinely express himself for once.

   The music interlude came in and I sort of tapped my finger against the floor to the beat.

    _When the sky fell in_  
   When the hurricanes came for me  
   I could finally crash again!  
   And that's how I became the sea

   The song wound down and finally ended. Bratty and Catty started clapping.

   "So you think we can do it?", I asked Mettaton. He brought his hand to his chest and gasped dramatically.

   "Why Chara, how can you say something like that? Obviously we will!"

   The five of us cheered with varying degrees of fervor. Mettaton stood up and connected his phone to the boom box. He then turned to the class and clapped his hands, which was our cue to get to our spots. He then walked in front of the row of mirrors on the wall opposite the door.

   "Alright. We've got forty-five minutes to get you all acquainted with the first few measures and fix any quirks that don't work. So!"

   Mettaton pointed to Catty.

   "You need to stand off-center to your left, and Bratty," he moved his finger to her, "you go the same distance off-center to the right."

   BG backed up as the girls readily complied.

   "Nice, B, you two go left and right of Bratty and Catty and about two feet further down."

   They moved to their spots and Mettaton sort of fussed with the balance of the formation before finally getting to me.

   "Chara, you go behind Bratty and Catty two feet further up."

   I did as he said and he put his hands together and smiled.

   "Wonderful! Now BG and Nice, go to your knees, lean back, and extend your outside leg."

   The dance class went along and we got through to the middle of the first half of the first chorus before Mettaton's 7:00 advanced jazz class had to begin. Of course, the majority of the class had already lined up about ten minutes before seven. I always kind of wanted to shout at them for no real reason just because they kept staring at us while we were in the middle of learning a routine. They probably couldn't care less how we looked and no one else in class (except probably BG) seemed fazed by it, so I tried not to make a big deal out of it, but it was kind of hard to block out people who probably had to do dance moves that did not force them to contort their bodies into positions that would look incredibly strange and awkward out of context.

   "Alright beauties, that's all for today! Don't forget to practice and I'll see you Thursday!"

   "Byyyye Mettaton!", Bratty and Catty drawled as they made their way to the door. Nice waved to me and walked out the door before BG. I walked over to my shorts and shoes and put them on as the jazz kids started filtering in. I stood there and waited for a break big enough for me to walk through to appear. When it did, I slipped out and walked into the lobby. Nice was talking nervously to BG and I was relatively sure he was trying to ask him out. I sort of smiled to myself, they'd make a cute couple. If BG was smart and accepted.

   When I walked out, chilly twilight greeted me. My skin became overcome by goosebumps and I crossed my hands over my arms and attempted to make myself warmer. I then made my way over to my bike and took out my final graham cracker. Once I mounted my bike and started pedaling home, I ran over the dance steps in my head over and over and over. I stopped in front on the driveway and noticed dad's car parked there. I then walked my bike up the incline and opened the garage. When I got my bike inside, I closed the door and it slammed against the concrete with it's usual profound rattle. I vaguely heard Asriel saying from inside, 'Cara's baaack!', while I checked the time on my phone. 7:13

   I leaned my bike against the wall next to Asriel's and walked into the house through the door inside the garage. I was met with the smell of Mom's cooking as I walked through the combination pantry and laundry room. I then slipped on a random white shirt that I always left next to the door for when I biked home in time for dinner.

   "Chara? Who's Chara? I just sort of wandered in off the street and the door was unlocked."

   Asriel giggled as I got through the empty doorway that led into the kitchen, which was in full view of the dining room. Dad, Mom, and Asriel were sitting at the table in the middle of dinner, like they usually were when I got back from dance class.

   "So how were dance lessons Chara?", Dad asked.

   "We finally have a routine to work on for the recital.", I replied, making my way through the kitchen.

   "But that's in summer.", Asriel pointed out as I got into the dining room.

   "Hence why we start rehearsing in early September.", I said, sitting down and getting myself some food.

   Dinner continued as usual and Dad did the dishes as Mom ushered Asriel to his room -much to his protest- while I worked on my algebra homework. Once that was done, I looked up at the clock, which said 8:45. Fifteen minutes weren't a very long time to do much. I decided to pull out my phone and waste some time on YouTube. I was watching a vocaloid video because why not and my dad tapped my shoulder. I looked up at him and checked the time. 9:05.

   "Alright. Night Dad.", I said, leaving my phone on the table and walking to my room. I closed the door and shut off the lights, causing the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling to give off light. I changed into something more suitable for sleep and tossed my tights, shorts, t-shirt, and leotard into my hamper. Once that was done, I flopped onto my bed and sifted through the day's events in my mind and bundled myself up in the covers.

   I closed my eyes and wondered about Frisk for a moment. I'd have to ask around or something tomorrow. Maybe I could also ask Mettaton Thursday. If I got there on time. Or rather, if I got there early.

   I drifted off with the dreamy music playing in my mind along with Frisk's voice. He really was a good singer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering what the heck all the 'On time is late' stuff when Chara's getting to class means, it's a theatre saying.  
> "If you're early you're on time. If you're on time you're late. If you're late you've been replaced."  
> I figured Mettaton would say something like that frequently, so yay!  
> (and if you're wondering what my headcanon for Chara could possibly be, wait a few chapters)


	3. A Bilingual, Cookies, and Melanin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wednesday

   "Um... uh... Cha-ra?"

   I turned around and saw Napstablook shuffling towards me. I decided to pause my progress to the cafeteria to listen to whatever he had to say. I also wondered internally why he'd said my name so strangely.

   "Yes?"

   "Well... I... just wanted to... ask about that... dance routine you're working on... for Frisk... since he wanted me to... ask you, I mean..."

   "Oh. We're to the chorus. And there's a whole lot of fluid motion. Which is kind of weird for a modern dance routine." I started going faster, "At least, from what most other routines are like. Like Martha Graham, Martha Graham almost never had those deliberate fluid moves that other dance styles had. I mean, have you  _seen-_ "

   "Uhm... could you slow down? I mean... if it's not too much... to ask."

   "Oh, I'm sorry. I always do that."

   "It's okay... it's really not about you... specifically... just... English in general..."

   "What do you mean English in general?", I asked, deciding to start walking again. He followed a few feet behind, so I had to tilt my head to him while focusing my eyes on where I was going.

   "Well... it's... not my first language..."

   "Really? What is?", I wondered as we approached the line.

   "Um... japanese..."

   "What- seriously?", I asked, turning to face him and narrowly missing making some random freshman and myself trip over each-other. We were finally in line, so I could stop attempting to multitask.

   "Yeah... that's what everyone says."

   "Heh, sorry, it's just... I wasn't expecting it. You don't-", I stopped myself before finishing that incredibly dumb sentence. "Nevermind."

   "...Sound like it?"

   "Yyyeah."

   "Hm... I get that a lot."

   "I guess that explains all the pauses though."

   "Yep..."

   "But, how did you learn English? And how to pronounce everything?"

   "Well... that's mostly because... of all the time I spend... around Mettaton. He's been speaking english to me... since we were little. But... some things still trip me up. Like... your name."

   "My name?"

   "Yeah... I keep... wanting to say it like... _'Sharar'_... but that's not right."

   "Huh. That actually sounds pretty cool. If it trips you up so much you can just call me shar... sher... I don't understand how you did that."

   "Ah.... Thank you..."

   There was some awkward silence as we just sort of shuffled forward in the unearthly line.

   "... Sooo, how long have you been here?", I asked, "In this school, I mean."

   "Oh... since freshman year... that's always... weird... to say. Freshman year... doesn't make sense to me..."

   "Yeah, I remember I could never for the life of me get juniors and sophomores straight."

   "Yeah..."

   And yet another (slightly shorter) silence.

   "Um...", Napstablook mumbled, "How long... have you been in dance?"

   "Well, I was nine when I picked it up, and at first Mom put me in ballet, but I was having none of it, and so she decided jazz might suit me better, but then I got to middle school and- wait, too fast, right. Single sentences like a normal person. Okay. I was in middle school when I found out about modern dance, and I thought it looked cool. Mom thought it was a little strange. Dad helped us look for someplace to teach me and Mettaton just happened to have classes for it. So I guess you could say I've been in dance for seven years. Unless you're just talking about Mettaton's class, in which case it's been four about."

   "... Wow. Interesting..."

   "So, what about you?"

   "Eh?"

   "When did you start making music?"

   "A-ah! Well... I... I'd been learning to play the piano since... ever... and I moved here when I was... around eleven... So then Mettaton... decided to get me some music software... and it was really weird at first...... but I sorta got the hang of it... and now I have a whole lot of other stuff... to work with.... so... yeah. That's when I started making music, sort of."

   "Hm."

   We were almost to the food and I surveyed the choices. Our school was a little nicer than others, and we actually had edible food as a result. Today it was cold turkey sandwiches, drumsticks, or the obligatory vegetarian option one of the activity clubs had advocated for which I didn't pay attention to.

   We grabbed our trays and both got sandwiches. I grabbed some baby carrots and Napstablook simply got a soda can at the end after I got myself a bottle of water. I got to the end of the line and noticed they had double chocolate cookies today.

    _Eh, the rest of my lunch is healthy._

   I picked out the one that looked the biggest and placed it down on my tray. When I got to the lunch lady I punched in my number and continued walking. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Napstablook fishing around in his pocket for his lunch money. That was the convenient thing about having your lunch pre paid. I decided to wait for him and he seemed surprised when he saw me standing there. He scuttled over and sort of stumbled over himself for a few seconds before saying,

   "Um... I'm gonna go... eat lunch with Frisk... like I... always do."

   "Oh. Well, I ah... Mind if I join you? Eating alone gets super boring sometimes so..."

   "Don't you... have friends to eat lunch with?"

   "Well, not really, I haven't been here long and I don't talk to anyone, so..."

   "Oh. That's... awful."

   "Eh, not really. Like I said, it's more boring than anything else. I don't understand what everyone else's deal is, wanting to be friends with everyone. There's hundreds of people here, you ain't gonna be friends with all of 'em."

   "Huh... I guess you're right. C'mon, Frisk... brings his lunch with him, so..."

   "Okay doke."

   I followed him to the table with all the special needs kids. Frisk was sitting on the far end opening up one of those old school tin lunch boxes.

   " _Kon'nichiwa,_ Frisk.", Napstablook murmured. Frisk lifted his head and smiled warmly. His eyes were closed again.

   "Oh, hey there Napstablook."

   "I uh... I mean..."

   Napstablook looked over to me.

   "Hey, I came to ruin your lunch.", I said.

   "Ah!", Napstablook prickled slightly and Frisk tilted his head to me.

   "Oh. You're... familiar... You're from yesterday, right? Chara?"

   "Yep."

   "Oh, that's great. I asked Napstablook to ask you about the dance, but I guess I can ask myself now."

   "Yeah, he already asked me that. We've gotten to the chorus, and the movements aren't really what I'm used to, since there aren't very many slow, fluid moves in modern dance usually."

   I sat myself down across from Frisk and Napstablook did the same.

   "Huh. Interesting.", Frisk said as he felt his way around his lunchbox and pulled out a small thermos.

   "Yeah..."

   There was an awkward silence much like before where everyone just sort of began to eat their lunches. Frisk had a sort of hot pocket if you could call it that, since it seemed homemade, and a muffin that also looked homemade. I swallowed down some of my water and thought of what to say. However, I didn't have to think about it very long, since Frisk began to speak.

   "So have you been here long?"

   "Huh? Oh, not exactly. It's a long story made short by; my Dad's job is a jerk."

   "Ah, I get it. I moved here over the summer. Napstablook's my neighbor."

   "Oh, cool. I don't really know my neighbors. Mostly because I do other stuff."

   "Yeah, makes sense."

   There was another small stretch of silence and at this point I was getting used to it and decided to ignore it. Napstablook didn't seem to be capable of this.

   "So... uh... do you... ah... F-Frisk, I managed to get to the high high A sharp... on the range test."

   "Seriously?", Frisk asked through a mouthful of muffin.

   "Uh... yeah."

   "What range test?", I asked.

   "Okay," Frisk began, swallowing his muffin bite, "so there's a thing that exists where a vocaloid will just sound off all the most impossibly high notes on the staff, and people have tried and failed desperately just to hit high D."

   "... I know nothing about music, you'll have to explain or something."

   "Napstablook, care to demonstrate?"

   "Ah... well... sure... um," he pulled in a deep breath and started singing, _"Hi a, hi b, hi c, d, c... hi d, hi e, hi f, g, f, hmmhm, hi g, hi hi a, hi hi a sha' , c-_ agh- nooo...."

   He sort of grumbled and I stared at him with a newfound awe.

   "Woah. How do you even sing that high?"

   "Guh... practice... and vocal chords that... work... which mine don't... right now... because of that..."

   "Sorry Napstablook, but it's pretty cool, huh?", Frisk said to me.

   "Yeah."

   We continued eating and I handed my water to Napstablook, since soda hardly seemed like the proper way to wash down a high high A sharp.

   "Thank you..."

   I finished off my sandwich and had already gotten halfway through the carrots, so I decided that was enough and picked up my cookie.

   "Mmm."

   "What'cha got there?", Frisk wondered, turning his head to me. I repositioned the chocolate sludge in my mouth to respond.

   "Double chocolate cookie."

   "Woah. That seems like a lot."

   I swallowed.

   "If you're gonna offer to help me finish, the answer is a definite 'Heck no'."

   "Oh no, not at all. I'm not really one for... um... really rich things."

   "Really? Well, you're missing out then."

   I took another bite.

   "Heh, maybe. But Muffet's cooking is most definitely better than anything the school can cook up."

   "It's not a very high bar to begin with. The school already makes the food edible on a basic level, so it stepped over that crack in the sidewalk."

   "Clearly you've never had Muffet's cooking."

   "Of course.", I rolled my eyes. "Who is Muffet, anyway."

   He opened his mouth before closing again and thinking for a second. I swallowed the chocolatey cookie mush.

   "She's... my sister."

   "I sense bad lying."

   "It's not... exactly a lie."

   "Then what exactly is the truth?"

   "Uhm, well, she's the one taking care of me right now, and she's not really that much older than me, so it would just be weird to call her 'mom', so for now I guess you could say she's my sister."

   "She... huh?"

   It clicked suddenly.

   "Oh! That makes sense."

   "Yeah..."

   Now the silence was truly awkward.

   Napstablook handed my water back to me and I took it. Frisk drank down whatever was in his thermos. I took another bite of my cookie.

   "Um...  _Sharar,_ do you... have any... siblings... or whatever?"

   "Huh? Oh don't even get me started. Asriel is-"

   Suddenly, the lunchroom speakers crackled on.

   "Dreemurr! Come over here!"

   I cringed and groaned.

   "This should be fun."

   It was Coach Undyne this time. As if her dark, muscled frame and likely dyed bright red hair weren't imposing enough, she felt the need to wear an eyepatch, because of course. It could be perfectly ridiculous, but when you've spent the first month and a half about of school in and out of detention, all the teachers start looking scary.

   "There you are.", she said, "I need you to help me carry stuff 'cause Papyrus is a wimp and needs someone to help him."

   "I...", this was not what I was expecting, "Okay then."

   She led me out of the cafeteria and to the gym. There were some ellipticals, a whole lot of stationary bikes, and two bench presses. Standing next to them was Assistant Coach Gaster and an industrial size dolly.

   "We need to get that exercise equipment onto the dolly and into the cages in the locker rooms.", Coach Undyne told me.

   I wasn't so sure I was very well suited for this job. The coach clapped me on the shoulder and I swear it was dislocated for, like, a fraction of a second.

   "It's all good. You got this, kid."

   She removed her hand and I rubbed my shoulder.

   "Thanks."

   I walked over to the assistant coach and he beamed down at me. Everyone I asked kept saying all the Gasters were directly related, but I had a hard time believing that. Really the only similar thing about all of them was their skin. Despite spending most of his time outside with the majority of the teams, Assistant Coach Gaster's complexion was still pretty pale. When I'd asked Dr. Gaster about it, he'd said it was because all of them had low amounts of melanin in their systems, which is one of the main things responsible for skin pigments. (He'd also started going off on a tangent about albinism and how I had certain qualities of someone with said condition and I immediately changed the subject.) Also, I'd heard that Assistant Coach Gaster sunburned  _incredibly_ easily.

   "Alright, we'll start with the light stuff.", Undyne announced, "You two start grabbing some bikes."

   "Aye aye!", Assistant Coach Gaster chimed, saluting her. I  _really_ had a hard time believing he was related to Professor Gaster.

   The two of us picked up one bike and carried it over to the dolly while Coach Undyne carried two at a time over. Albeit slower than we could get one onto the dolly. Once we'd gotten half the bikes on, the dolly was at full capacity and Undyne started pushing it towards the double doors to the girls' locker room, leaving me and the assistant coach standing there for a few seconds before he jumped.

   "Oh! We need to help her get them off!"

   "Oh that's right."

   We went in after her and helped her unload them. Once we got out, Assistant Coach Gaster pushed out the dolley and the coach and I followed after him. When I saw who'd appeared in the gym, I wasn't sure if I should be pleasantly surprised, or just regular surprised.

   "Oh, um... hey.", Napstablook waved. Frisk was holding his other hand and had turned his head in the general direction of the door.

   "Is um, is Chara in here?", he asked.

   "Right here.", I answered. He seemed to smile a little.

   "Oh, good. I uh," He held out what was left of my cookie, "thought you might want to finish eating before... whatever is happening. Don't tell me you skipped detention again just to talk to us."

   "Hey, I wasn't skipping yesterday, you guys delayed me."

   "Alright then."

   I walked over and took the cookie from him and decided to snarf down the remaining chocolate matter.

   "Thanks.", I told him through my mouthful of unhealthy cookie bits.

   "No problem."

   "Let's uh...", Napstablook suggested, "get back to... the cafeteria. Bye  _Sharar..._  bye Papyrus."

   "Goodbye Napstablook!", the assistant coach called after him. That was strange.

   "How do you know Napstablook?", I asked him after they'd left and I'd swallowed the rest of my cookie.

   "Oh, well he's my boyfriend's cousin!"

   "Wait, Mettaton's your  _boyfriend?!"_

   "Oh, you know him?"

   "He's my dance teacher."

   "Oh! How nice! Now I understand why Undyne selected you to help with the heavy lifting."

   "I... Okay then."

   "C'mon ladies," the Coach barked from the other part of the gym where the rest of the exercise equipment was, "you can compare notes on the idiot's boyfriend after we finish!"

   We put the rest of the bikes into the cage, then put the ellipticals and bench presses into the cage in the boys' locker room. The assistant coach and I were rather out of breath by the end of it, and then the bell rang. English was next period. The part of the school where the classroom was was on the opposite side of the campus.

    _"Uuugh!"_

   "What's the matter Chara?", Assistant Coach Gaster asked me.

   "Your brother's gonna kill me is what's the matter."

   "Huh? Oh don't be silly, Sans wouldn't do something like that."

   "You obviously have no idea what detention with him is like."

   "Ugh, I was gonna write you a pass anyway.", Coach Undyne grumbled.

   "Oh. Thanks."

   "Come with me."

   She led me through the girls' locker room to her office and sat down at her desk. As she continued writing she sort of slowed down and looked up at me.

   "You don't look like your parents, you know."

   "I- um... I guess I wouldn't expect to. How do you know them?"

   "Asgore's an old friend."

   "I see."

   "Why wouldn't you expect to?"

   "Reasons."

   "I figured as much."

   She handed me the pass.

   "Tell your dad 'hi' for me."

   "Will do."

   I turned around and started walking out.

   "And tell Frisk if he's gonna attempt flirting, he's gonna have to try a little harder!"

   I stopped.

   "What?"

   "Get going, you don't want the half pint to get too angry at you."

   "I-..."

   I turned around and dashed out.

    _Flirting? I doubt a cookie counts as flirting. Why do people always assume these sorts of things?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Fluff! And Undyne! And exposition! (I hope I delivered it well)  
> My headcanon for Napstablook would be Mafumafu, just for future reference.


	4. Sweetness and Rushing

   I walked out of the school with the rest of the students and made my way to the bike rack. As I fiddled with my lock, a loud screeching sound like burning rubber reached my ears through the various voices of all the other pupils. I looked up to see where it had come from and saw a bright pink... baking van. It had a logo I didn't bother to read as a girl in pigtails who looked no older than twenty hopped out and dashed into the school. Strange.

   As I tossed my key into the bike's compartment and pulled the contraption out of the metal rack, I decided to take a second look at the logo.  _Muffet's Crawly Confections._

    _Muffet? That Muffet?_

   As I began mounting my bike, I debated waiting to get home to see what would happen. My mild curiosity overruled the small part of me that wanted to get home two minutes sooner. Muffet soon came out of the doors, obviously trying her best to not let Frisk trip even though she probably just wanted to get back to her pastry van as fast as possible for whatever reason. I wondered if it would be rude to just sort of walk up to them and delay their departure a few seconds to say bye to Frisk. I decided five seconds couldn't hurt that much and jogged my bike across the pavement toward the two of them and caught Frisk's attention a few feet from the vibrant vehicle.

   "Hey Frisk!"

   He turned his head to me and so did Muffet.

   "Chara?"

   "We don't have tiiime for thisss!", Muffet griped.

   "Yeah, it's me.", I replied, ignoring Muffet's complaint, "Just wanted to say goodbye or whatever."

   "Oh, okay. Bye Chara.", Frisk waved at the air a few feet to my left with the hand that Muffet wasn't holding, which had a white cane with a red stripe near the end attached to his wrist. Muffet yanked him the last few feet to the passenger door, swung it open, and shoved him in.

   "Yes, yes, good good. Buckle up, we're ten minutes and forty-something seconds late!"

   "Okay, Muffet.", Frisk complied as the young woman slammed the door shut and dashed to the other side. I noticed Frisk jumped when the door shut and he seemed... really scared. His eyes were wide open and didn't know rather or not I imagined him shaking. I really wanted to just sort of give him a reassuring smile or a tepid thumbs up or something, but he wouldn't see it, so there wouldn't be a point.

   Thinking about it kind of made me sad. And I couldn't get it off my mind the whole way home.

-*-

   "Chara's hoooome!"

   "Chara? Who's Chara? I just landed on this planet and saw this strange shelter unit."

   Asriel's giggle emanated from the living room as I walked down the hall. One of the little monsters dashed out at me.

   "Hiii!!", they exclaimed.

   "Hey there.", I replied rather flatly. I looked around and noticed there were two other kids there. All three of them looked related. Like, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if they were triplets. Funny thing was, these guys didn't seem like they were part of the afternoon crowd. They didn't look too terribly familiar.

   "These guys didn't get picked up yet.", Asriel explained, " _Mom_ asked _me_ to watch them."

   "Good for you."

   I turned around and started walking through the dining room towards the kitchen to find some fruit or whatever to eat. One of the tiny people started humming something... familiar... I knew it, I did. I started humming along as I pulled a banana off of the bunch on the counter.

    _"And then..._ "

   It suddenly hit me.

   "That's Frisk's song!"

   Everyone in the living room turned to me.

   "How d' you know Frisk?", one of the 'triplets' asked.

   "I... he goes to my school, and I heard him singing that one time."

   There was a knock on the door.

   "I'll get it!", Asriel announced enthusiastically. He got out of the chair he'd been draped over and dashed down the hall. I rolled my eyes and walked over to see who it was myself from the other end of the hall. Asriel opened the door and I was rather surprised by who I saw.

   "Who are you?", Asriel asked.

   Frisk tilted his head down toward Asriel's voice.

   "Ah, my name's Frisk, I came here to get-"

   "Frisk!", shouted the three little monsters, running past me. He lifted his head to where their voices were coming from.

   "Oh, hi you three. Were you good for Mrs. Dree-", he cut off and seemed like he'd just realized something, "murr... Dreemurr..."

   "Yes Frisk, you have the right last name.", I told him, walking closer. He turned his head in my direction.

   "Chara."

   "Yup. You seem to have stumbled upon my house."

   "This is your house?"

   "Yeah! You'd know that if you opened your eyes!", Asriel pointed out. The three other children looked at him like he was insane and I facepalmed. Frisk just smiled semi-apologetically.

   "Uhm, Asriel, remember what mom told us about people who have to walk around with white canes with red stripes on them?", I asked, crouching down to his level. He looked at me, then at Frisk, finally noticed the cane in his hand and gasped.

   "I- I'm sorry!", he squeaked.

   "It's okay.", Frisk reassured him.

   "Friisk! What's taking so long?", Muffet called from outside, "Just tell Ms. Dreemurr we're checking them out and get yourselves into the van!"

   "Right!", he affirmed craning his head over his shoulder before turning back to my general direction, "So where's Mrs. Dreemurr exactly?"

   "She's usually outside around-"

   "Chara? What's happening over here?"

   I turned and Mom was walking in from the other end of the hall.

   "Frisk came to get the kids Muffet hasn't picked up yet into their van."

   "Oh. Hold on, I feel like I've heard that name before."

   "It's likely you have.", Frisk said, "But at the moment, we should all be going. C'mon guys."

   "Bye Asriel!", one of them waved as another grabbed Frisk's hand to make sure he didn't trip on the steps leading up to our porch.

   "Bye Miz Dreemurr!", the last one called.

   "Goodbye dears. Be good now!"

   "We will!", called the one who was now pulling Frisk along down the driveway. It was about then that Mom noticed Frisk's cane. She looked rather surprised, which made perfect sense. Asriel waved until everyone piled into the van, then closed the front door.

   "That was...", I began, trying to fill the almost-awkward silence, "Abrupt."

   "Very.", Mom agreed. "Well, I'm going back to the backyard. You two don't burn the house down."

   "Yes Ma'm!", Asriel complied enthusiastically. Mom walked out and I pulled my phone out of my pocket with my free hand.

   "You never said Frisk was blind.", Asriel said as I unlocked the screen. I looked down at him, walking over to the dining room.

   "Must've slipped my mind."

   "How does that slip your mind?"

   "Because I'm polite and don't blurt out personal details about people I've just met."

   "It didn't  _sound_ like you'd just met."

   "Yesterday?", I asked, sitting down. Asriel hopped into the seat across from me.

   "No, today! When he was at the door."

   "Well, that's because I know him better."

   "How do you get to know someone better over one day?"

   "What kind of conversations do you even  _have_ in preschool? 'Hi, my name is Millie and my favorite color's pink, let's be friends.'?"

   He pouted at me as I scrolled through tumblr.

   "... No."

   He was totally lying.

   "What kind'a conversations do you have in high school?", he asked like he was accusing me of something.

   "Hm, if I remember correctly, I learned that Napstablook's first language was Japanese and that Frisk one, is in foster care, two, doesn't like really rich foods, and three, swears Muffet's cooking is the best thing in the world."

   "... Woah."

   "Yes, I know, it's a lot for your tiny mind to process."

   He resumed pouting and I smirked triumphantly. I continued to scroll while Asriel swung his feet under the table grumpily. I came across a really cool tattoo image and tapped the little heart at the bottom corner of the post.

   "What does the song even sound like?", Asriel grumbled, still all butthurt.

   "It's all dreamy and... there's a whole lotta synth."

   "Hm... Can we invite them to church?"

   "Wha- invite who to church?"

   "Frisk's family."

   "... Muffett seems a bit too... busy for it."

   "We can drive them. Then she can have quiet for a while while she bakes!"

   "How do you know- well, actually it makes sense that you know she rund some baking whatever, she drives around in a vibrant pink baking bus whatever, but still."

   "Pleeeaaase?", he begged.

   "Hey, don't ask me, ask Mom and Dad. And Muffet, don't forget Muffet."

   "Oh. Okay... But we can invite them, right?", he bubbled. I sighed in defeat.

   "Yes, Asriel, we can invite them."

   "Yaayy!"

   I rolled my eyes.

   "Go find something to do, or whatever. Check on your flowers or something."

   "Oh!", he exclaimed, hopping off the chair. His feet pattered across the floor and I resumed my scrolling. I found a wayward vocaloid illustration and recalled something. I changed the screen over to YouTube and typed in  _vocaloid range test._

   I liked the blonde one better than Miku, so I tapped his version and listened. Frisk was right, the notes were insanely high. I snickered when it got to the 'nope, I lied' line and the personified machine proceeded to break the laws of flipping physics. A few seconds after the song wrapped up, the door opened and the little monsters flooded in. There were about twelve of them, none of whom I knew the names of.

   "Chara dear," Mom called over, "would you mind grabbing the Strawberry Shortcake dvd?"

   "Which one?", I asked, getting up and narrowly avoiding getting bombarded by one of the children.

   "Any one is fine.", Mom told me.

   "Okey doke."

   "I wanna watch the Honey Pie episode!", One of the critters screeched as I mad my way over to the movie shelf a few feet from the TV.

   "There are a lotta those, you're gonna have to be more specific.", I told them as Mom rounded them up on the carpet. Though I had a pretty good idea of what the gremlin was talking about. I pulled out the disc that had the Ice Cream Island episode on it just as they confirmed my suspicions.

   "Ice cream island!", the kid yelled.

   "Looks like you're in luck.", I said, opening the case.

   "Yaaay!", they shouted. I took out the dvd and turned on the TV before walking over to the player, pressing the open button. Once I'd gotten the disc spinning inside, I walked over to the other end of the room where Mom was.

   "Thank you Chara.", she said to me.

   "No problem.", I replied as she went through the Menu and selected the episode named 'A Horse of a Different Color'. I never really bothered remembering the actual titles, just the random plot events. Like that time some rando decided to kidnap all the horses for a circus or something like that. I watched every single one of these videos at least fifty times, along with the majority of the Shirley Temple movies. It had basically been my childhood.

   "I'll be in my room.", I informed mom, walking over to the table to grab my phone.

   "Okay honey.", Mom replied as I started down the hall. Once I got into my room, I looked out the window. There wasn't much to see, just the wall to the neighbor's house, but it'd become a strange compulsion of mine. I walked over to my bookshelf and pulled out yet another book I'd read fifty times. I then scrolled through my playlists and set one on replay. As I continued reading, my mind wandered a bit and it occurred to me that I was missing something. I took me a second to realize I wanted to listen to Frisk's song. I'd have to ask Napstablook if he could give me a copy tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So! High school is a lot more time-consuming than I thought it would be. Meaning, I'm going to be a whooooole lot slower with the chapters than I want to be. Hope y'all don't mind, it's just that life likes giving me obstacles.  
> Also, sorry I couldn't get this out before school started, I just couldn't figure out how to move things to a stopping point about halfway through Chara and Asriel's table conversation.


	5. Fire Drills and Finding the Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thursday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll add the tags pertaining to this chapter later.

   Why fire drills exist is beyond me. I don't understand why we need semi-monthly reminders that you should _get out of the building_ if there's a fire. But, oh well, they happen anyway. That doesn't mean I have to learn to deal with it, though.

   I was in science class when the lights started flashing and the  _annoying as **fuck**_ chirping sounds started going off. I'd been to a school with these especially stupid kinds of alarms, I just hadn't realized they were so widely used until now. The first fire drill of the year. Whoop-dee-doo. Everyone started standing, the majority of them with exasperated looks on their faces, and lined up to walk down the hall and to the football field. As we were walking though, I noticed there was a strange murmuring from the class across the hall. A few seconds later, someone opened the door.

   "Uhm," said a mousy blonde teacher. She was pudgy and wore a lab coat and glasses and seemed pretty nervous. "I'm afraid this situation could escalate much too quickly, can someone help me in here?"

   About three people noticed she was there. I was one of them, neither of the other two were teachers. It was raining outside and I didn't have my umbrella, so I decided to go up to her. I noticed the murmuring was... this specific kind of mixture of sounds that just... seemed... off.

   "What kind of situation?", I asked. Why is it that I am taller than so many of the teachers here?

   "A-ah, um...", I clearly wasn't what she'd had in mind, but I suppose she decided to take what she could get while the sounds began to get louder and I decided to look into the room to see what was up for myself. "You see, most of these kids have been through a fire drill before, but it's always so disconcerting and  I'm afraid they're going to start  _really_ freaking out soon..."

   This was one of the classes for the special needs kids. And none of them seemed to be enjoying the flashing lights and deafening nails-on-a-chalkboard sounds coming out of the tiny plastic alarms set across the walls. My eyes found Frisk quickly considering he was familiar and I noticed his hands shaking on the desk. He was trying to take deep breaths but I could tell that wasn't working.

   "Well, let's see," I said mainly to myself, walking into the room. Dr. Gaster seemed to have not noticed my absence yet, so it saved me having to explain. "Did anyone specific start freaking out first?", I asked the teacher.

   "Ah- I-it was Frisk. I-I was surprised because he's usually so calm but-"

   I'd gotten to Frisk's desk and brought myself down to his level. He couldn't see it, but I'd made a habit of it after working the daycare for so long.

   "Hey Frisk.", I said evenly. He jolted a bit and tilted his head to me. His eyes were open, which made his expression that much more obviously freaked out. The lights flashed around us as some of the kids started moving and one or two of them began banging on the nearest surface.

   "Ch-Chara?", he asked.

   "Yup. What's got ya so jumpy?"

   "Wh- what kind of a question is that?!", he shouted. This got a few of the other students to cause even more of a ruckus. I heard the teacher mumble something along the lines of 'Oh dear', while she called the police officer on campus as well as the other people a million times more qualified for this than I was. Frisk withered when he heard the other students and looked down. "I-I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I don't know what's going on. Alphys tried to explain, but I couldn't listen because it's too loud and I don't know what Endogeny's doing and now I'm shaking and oh God what did I do?"

   "Shh.", I placed my hand on top of his. My lack of imagination and slight deficiency in that weird transcending empathy left me without a clue as to what the heck was going on in his head, but this seemed like the right thing to do. "You're fine. It really is a bad choice in alarms. I swear, one of these days, I'm gonna go deaf from one of these dumb drills."

   "No!", he exclaimed, snapping his head back up to me. Well, that was the wrong thing to say. "Y-you can't, you can't, then I can't talk to you."

   "I-I'm sorry. I'm bad at this.", I told him defeatedly. He looked a me a bit off-centered-ly, trying to get some control. His hand curled around mine and held onto it tightly.

   "Don't let go.", he mumbled.

   "Sure."

   The door opened and two other adults entered the room quietly and calmly. Frisk noticed and twitched to attention.

   "Wh-who was that?"

   "Just some teachers.", I told him offhandedly. His other hand came over to the one I had holding his and he proceeded to turn my palm over in his hands, curling his fingers around the spaces between mine and carefully exploring the small creases in my knuckles and the length of my fingernails.

   "... Your hands...", he whispered, "they're like a really old worn comforter. The kind that's two steps away from becoming threadbare."

   "... Thanks?", I replied, not quite knowing what else to say.

   "Ah, sorry. I do that sometimes."

   His grip relaxed a bit while the other people set to work trying to diffuse the situation.

   "It's okay.", I told him. The infuriating sounds from the fire alarms stopped abruptly, as did the flashing lights. You'd think this would help with everyone's collective agitation and they'd calm down easier, but nope. Things had become chaotic enough to where the fire alarms weren't exactly the problem anymore. I sighed and suddenly there was a shout from another part of the room.

   " 'RIS-!"

   Frisk perked up and turned in the direction of the sound. I turned with him, not sure what this was supposed to mean.

   "Endogeny.", Frisk said, mostly to himself. He'd mentioned her a few seconds ago.

   "Endogeny?", I wondered, turning to him after not really finding anything of note where we were looking.

   "Oh, yes.", Frisk elaborated, "She's a friend of mine. She has short hair and I think she's wearing her headband with the cat ears today. Unless she's not. Uhm, she's in a wheelchair, the kind you have to push. Do you see her?"

   I looked back in the direction of the shout and saw a pale girl with short blonde hair and her bangs pulled into a black barrette. She was, in fact, in a wheelchair and had a sort of tray she was resting her hands on. The likely culprit for her incarceration with the rest of them being Cerebral Palsy. She was looking in our direction and the blonde teacher had just gotten to her.

   "Yeah, I see her."

   "Can you take me to her?"

   As we were talking, Endogeny attempted to communicate what she wanted to the teacher by gesturing dramatically in Frisk's direction. She seemed to get it and wheeled the girl over.

   "Visk." she said when we were close enough. Frisk tilted his head down to her and smiled softly.

   "Hey Endogeny. Sorry about all this, it's all kind of my fault."

   "I would blame whoever thought these God awful alarms were a good idea." I muttered. Frisk sort of chuckled.

   "I guess you've got a point there. But still."

   Endogeny reached for his free hand and gripped it weakly. Frisk took a deep breath and the other kids seemed to be calming down as well. There was a soft knock on the door. The teacher jumped and scuttled over, cracking it open quietly.

   "Um, excuse me, but I believe one of my students may have wandered in." Said a vaguely regal voice belonging to Dr. Gaster.

   "Oh- yes, of course. She came in trying to help, I'll go get her."

   "Well, looks like I've been caught." I said, letting go of Frisk's hand and shrugging.

   "I thought it was weird that you'd ended up here." Said Frisk, smirking.

   "Yup. I'll see you at lunch or whatever."

   I waved as I walked out even though I knew he couldn't see it. Why did that always make me sad when I thought about it?

-*-

   Lunch came and I sat down with Frisk and Napstablook once again.

   "So,  _Sharar..._ how was your day so far?" Asked Napstablook. He was still pretty bad at small talk, but I had no room to talk.

   "Uneventful, unless you count the drill."

   "Those things are... always so... surprising."

   "Only about ten more for the year." I told him, faking encouragement.

   "Heh heh." He chuckled delicately.

   "Ten?" Frisk asked. I could tell he was masking his nervousness.

   "Yup. There's at least one every grading period, and that's not counting the chance some idiot will pull one of the alarms because they think it's funny." I informed him. I'd never pulled my punches before, why start now?

   "Why would they do that?" Frisk asked, putting down his plastic fork.

   "Like I said, they'd be an idiot." I replied.

   Frisk's eyebrows drew together. Napstablook's eyes bounced between us a bit while he awkwardly attempted to find something to say.

   "Um... uh... Frisk, how're the new lyrics coming?"

   "New lyrics?" I asked, not realizing how much I'd wanted a change of subject.

   "Oh!" Frisk perked up. "I've gotten the chorus down, but the hook needs a little work, I think."

   "Oh that reminds me, Napstablook, could you give me a copy of-... the song  _is_ called 'How I became the sea', right? It's not one of those where the title never even shows up in the chorus?"

   "Hm? Oh yes, that's what... it's called."

   "Great, so can you?"

   "Can... I..."

   "Send me a copy or something." I clarified.

   "Oh, um... well, if you wanted a digital copy... I'd need your number or something... to send you the file."

   "Oh right, hold on." I fished around in my backpack and pulled my phone out. "Okay, the number is..." I searched through the phone and finally found it. Napstablook pulled out his own phone and opened up a text window before sending me the file.

   "Yesss." I smiled.

   "You really like it that much?" Frisk asked.

   "Of course, didn't you tell me yourself you get a lot of compliments about your voice?"

   "Well, yes, but... My lyrics are kind of a different story."

   "Well, yeah, they don't make sense the first time you hear them, but I'm assuming it's a metaphor. Are all your songs like this one?"

   "Well... I really only started actually making something out of them when I met Napstablook. We've finished about three of them including 'How I Became the Sea'."

   "Really? What are the other ones?"

   "Ah... well..." Frisk's eyes were partially opened and his pupils moved to the ground to his left. Before he spoke again, he seemed to notice his eyes were open and quickly snapped them shut. I wondered why. "One of them is... I called it Vanilla Twilight, and the other's... Hello Seattle."

   "Cool. Have you ever been to Seattle?" I asked.

   "Oh, yeah, it's where I lived before I moved here."

   "Really?"

   "Yeah."

   I kind of wanted to ask what was up with him. He'd been acting weird ever since I started talking about the song.

   "Um..." Napstablook started. The two of us turned to him. "If you want... to listen to... those two, I can send them...."

   "Really?" I asked, perking up.

   "Yeah, um... let me... find them..."

   He started tapping away at his phone and I noticed Frisk silently munching on a sandwich. He seemed... uncomfortable. My phone pinged and I went to the recent messages and gladly downloaded the two songs.

   "Y'all don't mind if I listen here and now, do you?"

   Napstablook looked at me strangely before asking,

   "What's a y'all?"

   I just about died laughing.

   "What's- what's a ya- y'all! What's a y'all!"

   "Wh-what..." Napstablook sounded hurt.

   "I- I'm sorry. How does someone go through life not knowing what the word y'all means?"

   "But... what does it mean?" Napstablook asked.

   "Oh, it's sorta like... a contraction of 'you all', so 'you all' becomes 'y'all'." I explained.

   "Oooohh."

   "Were you ever in Texas or something before you came here?" Frisk asked.

   "Arkansas, actually."

   "Oh, it must be a bit warmer than Washington. And drier."

   "It was warm and dry as all get out, and we got no snow."

   "It doesn't snow much in Seattle either. There's a lot of rain though."

   It was then that the bell localized to the cafeteria rang and everyone got up to throw their trash out and stack their trays.

   "Guess that's our cue." I said, getting up.

   "Oh, okay." said Frisk. He packed up his thermos and other stuff while Napstablook and I stood up and left the table. When we got back, Frisk was staring at the table with his eyes open. He seemed like he was in flashback mode or something. Napstablook stood there with a concerned look on his face, not knowing what he should do. This situation was familiar, I knew it... It hit me that this is what had happened at the fire drill earlier. I reached for his hand and he jumped, pulling away immediately.

   "Who-"

   "It's just me, Frisk." I told him frankly.

   "I-..." he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Why did he always do that? "S-sorry... Um... what is it?"

   "Well... there's still some time left so I just sort of planned to pick up conversation." I said, sitting back down. Napstablook sat down silently behind me.

   "Oh... yeah... that makes sense."

   "Great." 

   There was a silence.

   "So..." Napstablook began. He was always the one taking the whole silence-breaking bullet. "What... do we talk about?"

   Something came to me.

   "Frisk! Undyne says if a cookie is your idea of flirting you're gonna have to try harder."

   "W-What?" He asked.

   "Remember yesterday, when you went to the gym to give me the rest of my cookie?"

   "I- I wasn't-"

   "I know, I know. I'm just passing on the message."

   "... What's wrong with a cookie anyway?" He muttered glumly.

   "Nothing at all. Although, if you were to flirt with me using cookies, I would suggest something of a higher caliber than a half-eaten cafeteria cookie I've already bought."

   "But I wasn't-!" He was red now.

   "I know, I know. Don't worry your pretty little head." I reached out to pat his head and he flinched, opening his eyes. They fell right on me again and I smiled. "You should open your eyes more often." I told him.

   "Ah..." He kept his eyes on me for a moment then shifted his gaze to the ground. "I... I guess it's just compulsory." He mumbled.

   Why would it be compulsory?

   I didn't get a chance to say anything more before the bell rang.

-*-

   "Alright everyone, let's pick up where we left off!" Mettaton announced.

   I'd managed to get to class early today, partially due to Dr. Gaster not feeling the need to write me up after the incident with the fire drill. We all took our places from the top, ran through to where we'd left off, and then proceeded to learn the rest of the steps. Mettaton had cut the track down a bit to account for timing restraints with the rest of the classes and so we got to the end about two thirds of the way through class. Now all we had to do was run it through about five thousand more times until it would be power washed into our muscle memory. And that wasn't accounting for the improvisations and major formation changes that Mettaton would no doubt decide to throw in before the performance.

   "Lovely! Now, before we run through it..." He considered the clock, "four more times, I'd like to ask you all a question." The class looked to him expectantly, "What is the sea? And what does it mean when you become it?"

   We all looked at him rather confused before we jointly understood the metaphor.

   "You don't have to answer right away, but think about it while you go through the motions, and I'm expecting answers from all of you next Tuesday. Understood?"

   "Rodger!" Nice chirped.

   "Yeah." said BG.

   "Okey-" "dokey" Bratty and Catty echoed.

   "Yup." I affirmed.

   "Wonderful! Now, from the top!" Mettaton walked back over to the boom box and we all got into our starting positions. The music started and I closed my eyes. Mettaton said it was a bad habit of mine, closing my eyes while dancing. But what he  _really_ hated was when I closed my eyes during a turn. It suddenly occurred to me that I should take my own advice. Not that Frisk would be able to see even if he opened his eyes. As I collapsed my shoulders and glided back, I listened to his voice and thought,  _What does the sea mean to Frisk?_ It might be easier to answer than what it might mean to me.

-*-

   It took me a while to get to sleep that night. I listened to Vanilla Twilight and Hello Seattle, wondering what he'd thought while writing these. Wondering how it related to the sea. Wondering if I was taking this a little too far and I should actually focus on finding out what it meant to me. But it wouldn't leave my head.

    _'Cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly..._

   It sounded like a breakup song to me. Did he have a girlfriend back in Seattle or something?

    _Take me above you light_  
   Carry me through the night  
   Keep me secure in flight  
   Sing me to sleep tonight

   Was Seattle part of it? The sea?

    _And I brought the ocean side_  
   To its rusty knees  
   As I felt the even tide  
   Deep in my shallow dreams

   What were his dreams even like?

   Images of Frisk kept playing through my mind. Him during the recording session, him earlier today when I'd managed to make him laugh. Him shaking inside Muffet's van, him smiling at Asriel. Him, just looking at me with his eyes open. Wide open in terror, half closed, averting his nonexistent gaze, looking glumly at his hands, staring off into the distance a few inches to my right.

    _When violet eyes grow brighter_  
   And heavy wings grow lighter  
   I'll taste the sky and feel alive again

   He was such a calm person, if all you knew about him were his songs and his voice. But there was something about him. Something about his lyrics. Something about the way he sang. It made it seem... almost... colorless and saturated. This strange immersive ambience that washed over you whenever you heard the songs.

   I thought about his eyes. I thought about the sea. And when I dreamed, he was smiling right at me with clear, sea green eyes.

   ...It still didn't make sense why I was so sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear to you, the 'what's a y'all' thing happened to my sister once! She was on a school trip to New York with a bunch of schools that weren't from the area, and when one of the kids from her group was talking to the other and said it, another girl turned to her friend and asked "what's a y'all" and EVERYONE proceeded to just keep using the word y'all non-stop for the next FOUR DAYS! I wasn't there, but my sister told me, and it was HILARIOUS!


	6. 6 AM, Invites, and Trying to Out-Hipster Everyone

   Getting up that morning felt strange. Probably because I'd had my headphones in all night and somehow the playlist had switched to 'Young Volcanoes' during the night. Something I did  _not_ want to hear right after waking up. As nice as the song was and everything, it didn't make me any more of a morning person. I groaned and ripped out my earbuds, tossing them to the other side of the bed. Another reason it might've felt strange was because it was around 6 AM when I got up.

    _This only happens when I have nightmares or something..._

   I tried to remember what I was dreaming about and when Frisk popped into my head it made even less sense than before. That one was the most likely culprit behind the odd feeling that settled between my shoulders.

    _Oh well, guess I'll get ready._

   I unplugged my earbuds and picked the least energetic or intense of my songs, turning up the volume on my phone's speaker. Unsurprisingly, it was Vanilla Twilight. Honestly, I'd known Frisk for two days and already he was monopolizing on my thought space.

 _The stars lean down to kiss you_  
_And I lie awake and miss you_  
_Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere_  
_'Cause I'll doze off safe and soundly_  
_But I'll miss your arms around me_  
_I'd send a postcard to you, dear_  
_'Cause I wish you were here_

   Never had I been more sure that this was a breakup song. I pulled a shirt over my head and listened closely.

 _I'll watch the night turn light blue_  
_But it's not the same without you_  
_Because it takes two to whisper quietly_  
_The silence isn't so bad_  
_'Till I look at my hands and feel sad_  
_'Cause the spaces between my fingers_  
_Are right where yours fit perfectly_

   Again with the colors and imagery. I'd have to ask him about that. I looked at myself in the mirror and walked over to my dresser to find another shirt.

 _I'll find repose in new ways_  
_Though I haven't slept in two days_  
_'Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone_  
_But drenched in vanilla twilight_  
_I'll sit on the front porch all night_  
_Waist deep in thought because when_  
_I think of you I don't feel so alone_

Don't feel so alone... I paused pulling out the new shirt.

 _I don't feel so alone_  
_I don't feel so alone_

 _As many times as I blink_  
_I'll think of you tonight_  
_(Tonight, tonight, tonight...)_

   I smirked and resumed dressing. It was quite the coincidence, considering I'd literally had a dream about him last night.

_I'll think of you tonight_

   Satisfied with my choice in attire, I grabbed a brush and started to go through my hair.

 _When violet eyes get brighter_  
_And heavy wings grow lighter_  
_I'll taste the sky and feel alive again_  
_And I'll forget the world that I knew_  
_But I swear I won't forget you_  
_Oh if my voice could reach back through the past_  
_I'd whisper in your ear:_  
_"Oh darling, I wish you were here"_

   ... Well now the song kind of sounded like somebody had died or something. I'd missed that while I was half-asleep. I walked out my door quietly, turning off my music before it could completely finish winding down.

    _Sorry Napstablook._

   Once I'd gotten some toothpaste in my mouth I thought a little more about the lyrics.

    _Don't feel so alone..._

   He didn't act alone.

   Maybe 6 AM was making me sentimental.

-*-

   I decided to bike to school early, like I always do whenever I wake up in the odd hours of the morning. It occurred to me that this was the first time I'd done it since we'd moved to New Home ISD. The sun cast orange and pink shadows on the grey-blue skies and deep purple cirrus clouds streaked the brightening gradient. The cool leftover night air blew back my hair while my eardrums buzzed with  _Ventura Highway_. I couldn't help but think of Dad whenever this one came up. He'd introduced me to it and there was one time in freshman year at another district where the Advanced Vocal Jazz class sang it for some school function. The line about alligator lizards in the air got me thinking of Frisk again. These kinda sounded like his lyrics.

    _I'll have to ask him if he's ever heard it._

   As I approached the school, something very big and very pink came into view. Muffet's van zipped past me on the road in the opposite direction. She must've just dropped off Frisk. I slowed down a bit to pull my phone from the the compartment at the front of my bike. It was hardly 6:45. School didn't start for nearly two hours. Once I'd gotten to the bike rack and locked up my bike I meandered to the front door. Sure enough, 

   "Frisk!" I called over. His eyes opened and he looked a few yards to my left and a good foot above my actual height. It was kind of cute.

   "Chara?" He asked. I jogged closer.

   "Yup. I woke up at six because that just sort of happens about once every month and a half-ish." I stopped in front of him and his gaze focused on my left cheek.

   "Oh. I always get here about fifteen minutes before they actually open the doors. It's the only time Muffet can drop me off."

   "I see."

   I could've imagined it, but for an instant, his mouth morphed into a bitter smile.

   "Well anyway," His expression became softer and I was positive I must've imagined that flash of uncharacteristic bitterness. "it's nice to have someone to wait with for once."

   I looked around. There were about five to ten other kids around, all in various states of awake and in groups or pairs.

   "Yeah, if it makes you feel better I-" I stopped myself right there because I had  _not_ just offered to get up at six AM literally most every morning just to keep him company for fifteen minutes in front of the school. I was honestly surprised at my willingness to just up and say it.

   "If... you what?" By the look on Frisk's face, he knew  _exactly_ what I'd been about to say.

   "N-no, just forget it. I'm... terrible at keeping promises anyway."

   "... I don't mind." Frisk cautiously reached forward, searching for something. His fingers touched my side and he wrapped his hand around it. Now it was getting kind of weird.

   "Um..." I recoiled and his hand flashed to his chest.

   "I- I'm sorry I just..."

   It occurred to me that he'd probably meant to reach for my hand.

    _'Your hands... they're like a really old worn comforter.'_

   "Um... Here." I grabbed his hand and he visibly relaxed as relief washed over his face.

   "Th-thank you." He whispered, looking down and taking my hand in both of his, going over-

    _The spaces between my fingers!_

   "Vanilla Twilight." I blurted. Frisk started and tilted his head back to me.

   "Um..."

   "Ah, I mean," I stumbled through an explanation, trying not to talk with my hands so Frisk wouldn't have to let go. "I was listening to Vanilla Twilight this morning and I was just sort of wondering... what it was... about."

   "... Oh." His grip on my hand tightened just a smidge. "It's... it's about... one of my brothers, actually."

   "Oh?" It didn't completely click just yet.

   "Y-yeah. He... would always stay up with me and tell me stories. He knew all these big impressive words and he wrote  _a lot._ He slept on the top bunk and if I ever had any nightmares he'd come down and... keep me safe."

   He'd turned his face away from me, trying to hide his smile and the embarrassed flush on his face.

   "I-it's really not something I actually expected anyone to listen to." He said. "I showed it to Napstablook because... I thought it would be good to follow through with it. To make it... final." Frisk shrugged, still holding onto my hand. I stared at it for a moment before placing my other hand on top of the existing tangle.

   "You said my hands felt like a worn comforter." I said. He looked back to me and managed to stare somewhere near my bangs. "What about... your brother's?"

   He batted his foggy porcelain eyes.

   "Um... It was..." He closed his eyes in thought. "He... What I remember most was the callous on his left ring finger. Like..." His fingers shifted, searching mine for something. He circled his thumb around the skin just under my right fingernail and to the left, where years of being conditioned to write daily had left a callous because of the way I held my pencil. "Like this." Frisk continued, "And... his palms and the rest of his hands were... like a blanket. The soft kind that kids will use for naptime, y'know?"

   "Yeah..." I trailed off. I found a nice way to grip Frisk's hands and he seemed to agree because his fingers melted into mine. There was a deep comfortable silence. The blush from earlier faded from Frisk's cheeks as his eyelids drooped over his filmy irises. He looked kind of sleepy and peaceful. It... resonated with me I guess? It was...

   "... I don't think anyone else would ever let me hold their hands like this only two days after I'd met them." Frisk said. My eyes fluttered as I broke from the dreamy daze the moment had left me in. I was honestly kind of glad at the moment that Frisk was blind because the blush on my face could be seen from a mile away.

   "Ah- well... I mean, you just... seemed to want to and- Uh..." I looked away from him as he turned his head up to me. I just barely caught his smile from my periphery.

   "I did." It took me a moment to realize he was referring to what I'd said about him wanting to hold my hand.

   "Uh... Good." He sort of chuckled at that. There was a pause before he suddenly came out with;

   "Um, is that... okay? I- I mean you don't have to-"

   I slipped my hands out of his and grabbed both sides of his face, fixing his gaze on me.

   "Frisk. I'm the one who reached for your hand. You need to learn to infer things."

   He batted his eyes and his pupils darted to the left for a moment before coming back to my face.

   "O... Okay?"

    _Adorable._

   "By the way, Asriel wanted to invite y'all to church." I changed the subject abruptly.

   "... Y'all as in... Muffet and everyone..?"

   "Yes."

   "... You'd have to take it up with Muffet... but it sounds nice."

   It was about then that the doors to the school opened and I relinquished my hold on Frisk's face, slipping my left hand into his right. He laced our fingers together and it was honestly kind of nice.

-+-

   "No, no, a thousand times no."

   "Okay, but think about this: Yes, yes, a _million_ times yes?"

   I glared at Aaron.

   "I'm not giving you the song just so you can out-hipster everyone. Besides, you were being an asshole pulling the plug on my headphones in the first place! What is wrong with you?!"

   "Well excuse me if I don't like being ignored."

   "And excuse me if I don't like talking to you."

   Aaron, believe it or not, was technically the closest thing I had to a childhood friend. Which was why he kind of had a right to decide to be an asshole around me, and I had _every_ right to curse him out (which I'd already finished doing a few minutes earlier) and refuse to give in to his whims. Currently, we were on our way to lunch.

   "You know you love me."

   "I'd sell you to satan for one corn chip."

   We had a very deep relationship. And by deep I mean, he used to go to my mom's daycare when we were eight and had somehow ended up in the same district as me eight and a half years and five moves later. He might as well still have been eight years old.

   "Um, uh... Ah-  _Sharar?"_

   I turned to the voice and saw Napstablook trying to be more noticeable. He was almost succeeding. Almost.

   "Oh hey Napstablook, how's it goin'?"

   "Um, uh... good? F- Frisk was... talking to me... in choir about... this morning."

   "... This morning? Wwwhat about this morning?"

   There were butterflies in my stomach and I felt like an idiot when my face started heating up.

   "Um... y-you remember... uh... I... forgot the word." Napstablook stared at the ground and the air around him instantly became permeated with gloom. "bond about... Prom..? Something like...  _yakusoku..._ "

   "Are you talking about that promise I technically didn't make?"

   " _Sou-_ ah, yes. That's what I'm talking about..." His head had snapped up when I'd said the word and after he'd cut himself off in the middle of what I assumed was a japanese word his eyes darted away anxiously.

    _Poor little ball of nerves. He must be protected._

   "You're not allowed to insult him ever." I said to Aaron flatly.

   " _Eh_?" Napstablook asked and I  _swear_ that had to be the japanese word for 'huh' because I could  _hear_ the accent!

   "No, I'm talking to this idiot." I told Napstablook, jerking my thumb in Aaron's direction. Aaron faked an appalled gasp.

   "I would  _never_ insult such an adorable asian marshmallow!"

   I rolled my eyes.

   "Please, you have no restraint. You insult everyone on a daily basis for the sake of a joke. Then  _hit on_ everyone."

   "Don't judge me."

   "As the only technical christian in the vicinity as far as I'm aware; I don't judge, I inform. And I'm informing you that if you insult the 'asian marshmallow' I am personally going to give you an ass kicking."

   "Um... the... 'asian marshmallow' wishes to speak..?" Napstablook basically whispered.

   "Yes?" I asked, turning to him with a slightly amused smile on my face.

   "R-right, well... I don't know if he wants me to say... that he said this... but... He said he'd be lonely from now on... without you there in the mornings..."

    _... Fuck if that isn't the sappiest, heartstring-pulling-est, most adorable thing I've heard in my life._

   I groaned.

   "Does this mean I have to get up at 6 AM  _every day_ now?"

   "Ah- No! Not at all!" Napstablook jumped, "H-he said he'd be fine... waiting for whenever you... ended up there at the same time he does it's just... he... he said he'd keep wishing you were there anyway."

   "Chara, when did you get such a sappy boyfriend?" Aaron snarked out of nowhere. Or,  _I_ thought it was out of nowhere. In hindsight, it was a foregone conclusion.

   "He's not my boyfriend!" I snapped, my face burning and I swiveled my head over to Aaron. The smarmy smirk on his face caused my eyes to narrow. "Don't you look at me like that."

   We'd all gotten to the back of the lunch line at this point.

   "I'm just saying, you never get that way when you talk to or about _me_."

   "Because you're an  _ass._ "

   "Oh? Then what's so great about... Frisk was it?"

   "Yes. And for your information, he's a very soft, very nice, and incredibly friendly person who cares about my _feelings_ and junk. --But he's STILL not my boyfriend."

   "Oh? So you're saying I don't care about your feelings?"

   "No. No you really don't. And I don't care about  _yours,_ so we're even."

   "So you'd actually care about my feelings if I cared about yours?"

   "No I'd leave you to die in a ditch." I intoned with a voice saturated in sarcasm.

   "That's so nice to know."

   "Um... you care about my feelings, right?" Napstablook squeaked. I placed my hand on his head, which wasn't hard because he was a good foot and a half shorter than me.

   "Honestly, first Frisk and now you. You two need to learn to infer things. I told Aaron not to insult you. That means I care about your feelings."

   "Oh... Yay."

   I chuckled to myself and removed my hand, noticing that his roots were starting to show black.

   "So is this Frisk person who you've been ditching us to spend lunch with?" Aaron asked. Napstablook started and looked over at us nervously. Before he could say anything, I'd began my retort.

   "If by 'us' you mean you, Shyren, and her sister -the latter two of whom I have never spoken to directly- then  _no_ because I was never sitting 'with' you all in the first place."

   "You all... y'all..." I heard Napstablook mumble. I sort of smiled.

   "Well  _I_ thought you were sitting with us." Aaron grumbled, flipping his ridiculously long hair.

   "Well I wasn't." I said without missing a beat.

   "So... you sit  _with_ us?" Napstablook asked.

   "Yes. Yes I do." I confirmed before I could stop myself. Mapstablook smiled timidly and I thought to myself that I should probably get some less adorable friends before I just about died from the intense levels of cuteness I encountered thanks to them.

   "Who is this  _us_ anyway?" Aaron prodded.

   "Don't get all possessive. It's just me, Napstablook and Frisk."

   "Oh... where?"

   "Well, considering Frisk is blind, we have to sit at the table with the rest of the special ed kids." I informed him dryly.

   He boggled at me for a second and I just stared him dead on with intense disinterest.

   "O...kay." He said, looking away from me as we moved up in the line.

   "Uhm... Sh-Shyren's in choir with... Frisk and me..." Napstablook timidly changed the subject.

   "Is she?" Something came to me, "Wait, isn't there a girls' and a boys' choir?"

   "Oh, um, no we're... all in Chorale... actually... Sometimes I do the piano accompaniments..."

   "...  _Chorale?"_ Aaron and I gawked in unison. Napstablook looked rather shaken.

   "Y-yeah..." He looked away. It was starting to bug me how frequently he got uncomfortable in my presence. Either it was me or he had some sort of clinical anxiety that I didn't know about. Neither option sat well with me. 

   "Okay but how does Frisk read the music?"

   "Ah, Shyren helps with that... She-"

   "Wait, is Frisk that guy who Shyren has a crush on?" Aaron blurted out.

   " _What?"_ Napstablook and I asked in unison.

   "... I mean..." Aaron looked away, "She says there's this guy in Choir with her that can sing pretty high and she says she just really likes him because... there's something about him that draws her. I can respect that reasoning."

   "... Napstablook, what's the highest note you've heard Frisk hit?" I didn't know why, but I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

   "Uh... High C?"

   "... Okay I know nothing about music, that doesn't help." My general confusion distracted me from it.

   "Oh, um.... It's 'Do', actually. You know, like..." He rattled off the notes, "Do re mi fa so la ti do... I've only ever heard him hit the higher 'Do' in the key of C."

   ".... That doesn't seem all that high to me. Like, _you've_ sung higher."

   "Well... It's pretty high for Frisk..."

   For some reason, that almost made me feel a little better.

    _What in the heck is wrong with me today?_

   "I don't think it's Frisk then," Aaron said, bringing me out of my head, "Shyren said the guy could mostly match her range, and Shyren can sing  _high._ "

   "Yeah..." Napstablook agreed. He slowed down a bit as we stepped forward in line. "But... I'm the only boy in Chorale who can get past a high F... and Shyren goes to like... High-high E... probably higher..."

   "... Napstablook, didn't I hear you sing a 'High-high A sharp' or something just yesterday?"

   "Y-yeah... but..."

   We'd managed to get to the lunch trays and it distracted us for a second as we all got our food. Once the three of us had gotten through the line, Napstablook jumped.

   " _Chottomatte--_ a- I- She can't be talking about  _me,_ can she?!?!" It was the loudest I'd ever heard him speak.

   "I was wondering when you'd figure it out." Aaron quipped.

   "Wh- but..." Napstablook looked like he was having quite the time processing this. He started muttering in japanese and I patted him on the shoulder.

   "You can process it better sitting down, don'cha think?"

   "A- Y-yes..."

   I dropped my hand to my side and started walking to what had somehow become my usual spot over the past two days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So since I wrote it in because I like to impose my whims on the setting, have a link to my school's Vocal Jazz and Advanced Guitar classes singing Ventura Highway!:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3GxQ7Gqu8
> 
> (And in case you were going to ask, no I am not in either of those classes, freshmen can't audition for Vocal Jazz and there is no way in hell I will ever be able to play a guitar)


	7. Church, Prison, and No We are Not Dating

   I fully expected Sunday to be a complete train wreck.... It went better than I expected.

   Muffet had agreed to let Frisk and whatever little monsters wanted to come with him come to church, but we had to pick them up since she had baking to do. Our van could fit seven people max, and including Frisk there were four people from Muffet's, plus the four of us. This could only end so well. It became even more of a problem when it came to our attention that Frisk was not the only disabled one. Aside from two kids that looked like personifications of spiders, there was one that introduced himself as MK who kind of had no arms. I was genuinely baffled as to how he did anything. Or how he'd managed to put the bright red bow into his hair.

   "MK and I can share a seat!" Asriel suggested far too brightly for a Sunday morning.

   "Sweetie I don't think-" Mom began as the sandy blonde child scrambled into the same seat as Asriel who buckled them both in. Mom stared at them for a while, sighed, and smiled at the two. "Alright, everyone else find a real seat please."

   "Okay. Frisk,  _I'll_ help you inside." Said one of the spider children.

   "No I wanna help Frisk!" The other one squawked. Frisk gave an exasperated smile.

   "How about you two both help me in?" He suggested.

   "But there's not enough space," One of them argued, "your girlfriend's in the way."

   "I am  _not_ his girlfriend." I said immediately.

   "Are you suuurre?" Asriel smiled smugly.

   "I have known him less than a week Asriel." I replied flatly. Frisk chuckled.

   "It's probably my fault, I talk about you a lot." He assured me. My stupid heart decided to flutter at that.

   "Well if we wait much longer we'll all be late for Sunday School. Here,  _I'll_ help you in." I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped between the seats to reach out and grab his hand. He grabbed on and took a tentative step forward, his shin bumping the step up into the doorway. "Right, um, you should probably step up."

   "You've never had to help Frisk get places, have you?" One of the spider children asked.

   "Nope." Was my candid response as Frisk found his way to a foothold.

   Once everyone was loaded up and we were on the road, the trip was filled with Asriel and MK's chatter. I was squished between Frisk and the window and stared out at the passing buildings.

   Mom and Dad had agreed on plenty of things; except which form of Christianity to practice. So we alternated churches every week. This route was to Mom's church, the catholic church, which honestly worried me since that building was built like freaking Notre Dame and how on Earth would Frisk get around? I was probably worrying too much. I never worried this much in general. Maybe it was just that I preferred the baptist church. The congregation was smaller and the building itself was much less gothic. Plus the preacher there actually possessed a sense of humor.

   Once we'd finally gotten there, I led Frisk to the Sunday school room where all the high schoolers were. It was thankfully on the first floor. I opened the door quietly. My family was always some of the first people to get to church, but with a congregation as large as the one at this church that wasn't particularly saying much in way of completely empty rooms. The few heads in the room turned to us as we entered were perfect evidence of that. I pulled Frisk in behind me and it was like all eyes were on us or something. Frisk seemed to sense it, too.

   "Good morning Chara." Grillby greeted me without looking up from the lesson plan. He'd been the Sunday school teacher since ever and he'd somehow learned when who came into class and was right more than 99% of the time. He adjusted his glasses with one heavily flame-tattooed hand. I'd always suspected he had some deep dark backstory or whatever, but he didn't really do personal testimony. Just read out his lessons that half the class didn't listen to because we're high schoolers and a small fraction of the class was probably using the back of the sanctuary to make out during the main service. I'd even heard stories of kids going to the baptismal tank after sermons to do less scrupulous things. Honestly, I accounted those guys to complete idiots.

   "That voice..." I heard Frisk say as I led him to a seat. Grillby glanced up upon hearing this and did a double-take upon seeing Frisk.

   "Frisk?" He asked. Frisk's head turned to Grillby's voice.

   "Grill...by?"

   "Frisk, how long has it been?" Grillby smiled, standing up from his wheelie office chair.

   "I'm not sure... I made it to Seattle okay."

   Grillby grinned.

   "Great. How'd you end up all the way here from there?"

   "I guess I just did. But... why are you in the high school room?" Frisk asked. Two or three kids snickered briefly.

   "I'm the teacher of course." Grillby explained smoothly.

   "Oh."

   There was a small stretch of silence before another kid a little closer to where Frisk and I were situated suddenly called over.

   "So are you blind or..?"

   Frisk sighed.

   "Yes, I'm blind. And I don't mean legally blind I mean 'everything's black' blind."

   "So was that why Chara was holding your hand or are you-"

   " _We're not dating, you complete ignoramus."_ I snarled.

   "Now Chara," Grillby said as though he was about to lecture me.

   "Hey, I'm not cursing, that's an improvement." I crossed my arms and looked away from everyone in the room. Grillby sighed and returned his attention to his lesson plan. I heard a sharp intake of breath next to me and whipped my head around to see that someone had tapped Frisk's shoulder.

   "Sorry, but, how do you even know Grillby?"

   "He..." Frisk trailed off and turned his head to the ground. "I knew him back in Washington, when I used to live in a town a few miles out from Seattle."

   "What did he used to do?" Someone else prodded. Frisk started to fidget, lacing his hands together.

   "Well, he owned his own place. Everyone really liked it."

   "Was it a tattoo parlor?" The first kid snarked.

   "Why would Grillby own a tattoo parlor?" Frisk wondered.

   "It was the first conclusion they jumped to." I answered.

   "Why a tattoo parlor?" He tilted his head to me.

   "Well because... right, of course you wouldn't know. Grillby has these tattoos up his arms and neck."

   "He does?"

   "Yes." Grillby answered simply. He was always very stoic and to the point.

   "How'd you get all the way here from Snowdin?" Frisk asked Grillby, turning to his voice.

   "That's a very long story."

   "We've got fifteen minutes before Sunday school's supposed to officially start." I pointed out. "Tell us."

   Grillby sighed. Everyone there eagerly awaited his explanation.

   "Alright. But first, let's welcome Frisk, he's a visitor after all."

-+-

   The rest of the morning passed rather normally. The class finally found out what was with Grillby. Apparently he had ended up in prison a while after Frisk left Snowdin, which had shocked Frisk when he'd heard it, but a lot of the class had theorized many times that Grillby had had _multiple_ stints in prison. It was just that one year though, and he never told us what it was for. During his time there, he'd actually gone to the services that were held there because prisons apparently had chaplains. After getting out, he'd moved to New Home and now he was the Sunday school teacher for the high school class.

   Once he'd finished with that, he started the lesson and it wrapped up rather quickly. Everyone messed around in the room until it was time to go to the sanctuary and Frisk caught up better with Grillby. It was honestly really nice to see him smile for such a long time. I led him to where my family sat in the sanctuary and it was really hard to squeeze him and the others into the pew, but we did it. I guided him through the rigamarole of the services and we all sat through the sermon. The spider children managed to go a full five minutes without fidgeting in the slightest, but they didn't last too long. Then again, a lot of the kids in the congregation needed alternative occupations during the services.

   It had taken me the better part of my first fifteen years, but I'd finally started taking actual religion seriously a while back, so listening to the sermons had become less of a chore. My mind still had the tendency to wander, though. Once the sermon was over, we all got up to leave and the preacher stood at the exit to see everyone off. I was glad when we finally got past him, it was always and forever the part of church I hated more than anything. 

After, we all piled in the car and it dawned on me that I wouldn't see Frisk again for the rest of the day. I wanted to find some excuse to spend more time with him, but I quickly realized that was stupid. I realized just as quickly, though, that Asriel also had someone he wanted more time with.

   "Can we all go out for lunch?" He asked brazenly. Part of me was relieved he'd said it, but the rest of me wanted to smack him.

   "Well, taking them to church is one thing," Mom replied tentatively, "but I don't know how Muffet will feel about us taking them out to eat."

   "Then can we take them home and have lunch there? Frisk has been to the house."

   "Uhm..." Mom looked to Dad for support.

   "Well Asriel, shouldn't we ask them first if they want to come over before we go kidnapping them?"

   "I wanna come over!" MK burst out.

   "Muffet would like it if she didn't have to worry about feeding us!" Added one of the spider children.

   "I..." Frisk was much less bold with his statement. "I would like to stick around. And Muffet does have a lot on her plate, I'm sure it would be a nice break for her not to worry about so many kids."

   "MK says there's like, 20 of you!" Asriel emphasized his point with outstretched arms.

   "MK doesn't even know how to count." Said the latter spider child.

   "It's really only us, the triplets, and two cousins." Frisk clarified.

   "Frisk, that's 9 children." I replied, not sure how ludicrous that was on a scale of one to Mettaton. One of the pair of arach-kids spoke up.

   "Then there's Stacy and Laxen and Amy and Mousie and-"

   "Those guys only show up every few weeks, dummy!"

   "Well she still takes care of them!"

   The spider duo proceeded to bicker for a bit while Mom and Dad had a conversation with their eyes. Asriel was crossing his fingers, and MK probably would be too if he had any. I looked to Frisk and he was twiddling with his thumbs, twisting and lacing his fingers around each other. I knew it was stupid, but I rested my hand on top of the tangle. He became a smidge more alert and looked over to me. He managed to settle his gaze on my neck. Neither of us spoke, I simply assimilated my fingers into his and he squeezed my hand gently. It felt nice.

   "Well everyone," Mom broke me from the moment and Frisk and I looked to her. Well, Frisk looked to the back of Dad's chair opposite Mom's seat, but that's beside the point. "How about I make lunch for everyone and we drop you all off at home once everyone's finished eating?"

   "Yaaay!" Asriel and MK cheered and the double webby children answered affirmatively. Frisk tightened his fingers around mine and smiled, nodding.

   "Alright then." Dad boomed jovially. "Next stop, Casa Del Dreemurr."

   I smiled and rolled my eyes. It didn't take too long for us to reach the house. During that time, Frisk's hands stayed clasped around mine.

-*-

   The bug eating creepy crawlies personified sandwiched Frisk in when he went to sit down. I was  _not_ jealous. Just startled. The children chattered and Frisk listened and responded accordingly while I phased into the background. Mom made everyone sandwiches and mashed potatoes. But that took her a bit because she can never just put some turkey between two slices of bread and call it a day. No, instead she had to melt some cheese onto the bread(which she'd buttered before tossing into the frying pan) while she fried some turkey and bacon all up together, then drain the grease, then put some lettuce and carrot sticks onto the bread,  _then_ finally put everything together, complete with a toothpick sporting a colorful cellophane tassel. The mashed potatoes she simply reheated from a few nights ago, but you don't want me to even start explaining those. When Frisk took a bite after mom set the food down in front of everyone, he blinked, then looked in Mom's general direction.

   "Mrs. Dreemurr, don't tell Muffet I said this, but your cooking is amazing."

   The smaller children got curious and snarfed down their food. Mom chuckled.

   "Oh, it's only a sandwich, dear."

   "Mom, you clearly are too accustomed to your own cooking." I told her flatly as I shoveled some mashed potatoes into my mouth. "Doesn't dad have the drinks?"

   "Just a moment buttercup!" He called from the kitchen. I sank down into my chair. Did he really have to call me that? When Frisk was over? Wait- why did I care if Frisk was over?

   "Hey Frisk!" Asriel said as if he'd just thought of something mind blowing. He said a lot of things that way. "MK says you work on songs a lot! What's one you're working on now?"

   "Uhh..." Frisk averted his eyes to the floor and I reached over to flick Asriel in the forehead.

   "OW! What was that for?!?!"

   "Chara..." Mom gave me a warning look and I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms.

   "Asriel, you need to be more delicate." I told him. I heard a snort from my right and turned to see Frisk holding in laughter. " _What?"_

   "Chara, I have known you less than a week, and even I know you are one of the least delicate people on the planet."

   "Shut up."

   He held his hand up to his mouth and took a few seconds to compose himself.

   "Okay, okay, whatever you say."

   I aggressively bit into my sandwich but it's hard to stay mad when you had really good food in your mouth, so my face relaxed on its own.

   "What  _are_ you working on now, Frisk?" Asked one of the kids sitting next to him with a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

   "Don't talk with your mouth full." Frisk told her.

   "But what is it?" The one on the opposite side prodded. Frisk sighed.

   "That's the thing. I have a sort of idea, but I don't have a complete set of lyrics or idea for a melody."

   "What's the idea?" MK asked. Was it just in all children's nature to be the most annoyingly persistent form of detective?

   "It's... I don't have the words for what I want the song to feel like. That's part of the problem."

   "Chara says one of your songs is called Vanilla Twilight!" Asriel chirped, "What if you called this one... Strawberry Avalanche!"

   Mom and Dad held in laughter and the other kids at the table seemed fascinated with the idea. I personally thought it was crazy, but when I looked to Frisk I could see him thinking it over.

   "Hm... Sounds like something out of a-" He switched to this face that people get when they've made some kind of breakthrough. He quickly stood up from the table, knocking his chair over. "That's perfect!"

   All the children were suddenly excited, but I was a little too surprised for that. Frisk wasn't usually this... big. He seemed to realize what he'd just done all at once and quickly closed his eyes, tilting his head to the ground.

   "Um... sorry."

   "What for, my boy?" Dad asked.

   "I uh... I think my chair fell over, could someone grab it?"

   "I'LL DO IT!" Said both the children flanking him. The both jointly righted the chair and sat Frisk down in it. He seemed to shrink. I didn't like it.

   "Now that inspiration has struck," I jumped in, setting down my spoon. "what's the general idea?"

   "Oh... Well I... That is, I..." He tapped his fingers on the table and wouldn't look in anyone's direction. "Well, the words are sort of... getting there, but in general, what my idea came from in the first place was... Well, one time, I had to sleep over at a friends house and we ended up camping out in the backyard, and there was... something about it, so I've known I had to do something with it, l just... Never knew what to say with it."

   Never knew what to say with it? I was only barely grasping what he was getting at.

   "Huh." Was all I could formulate as a response. It was weak, but not all of us can be poets.

   "It's... kinda stupid."

   Wait, what?

   "No, it's... uh... neat." Neat? Really? Of all the words to use, I pick  _neat?_ "Not that- I'm just- Why Strawberry Avalanche?"

   Wow, Chara, nice save.

   "Hm?" Frisk seemed mildly confused, but apparently decided to roll with it. "Well, it sounded like something that might happen in a dream, and the phrase itself has this sort of... something about it that felt right for what it feels like thinking back to it. It's... I dunno, summery but wintry at the same time, but it's not like spring or fall, but it's not like summer or winter either, and so in a way it makes you think of space I guess? because it's like stargazing, which is why the melody is-- I- I'll stop now."

   He hastily took another bite of his sandwich and chewed on it silently. It was like the color drained out of him.

    _My eyes turned blue and green._

   "Frisk, I've been meaning to ask you something." I surprised myself, it came practically out of nowhere. Frisk nearly choked on his sandwich.

   "Hg- kh- what?"

   "Sorry, I- Uh... you know how my dance class is using your song?"

   "... Yeah?"

   "Well, Mettaton has apparently decided to try and decipher the metaphor, and what he got from it was, quote, 'What is the sea, and what does it mean to become it'. So I guess I'm getting some source inspiration you could say. What exactly is the song about anyway?"

   "Oh... It's..." He curled up into himself and nibbled at his sandwich, trailing off. Not the response I'd expected. Dad took it upon himself to finally change the subject.

   Frisk didn't speak for the rest of lunch, and while mom went to the kitchen to wash the dishes, Dad led Frisk and the kids to the van. Asriel tagged along, and even though I wanted to go, I didn't. Don't ask me why, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

   Frisk tilted his ear behind him when he heard my footsteps across the entry hall, but neither of us said anything. His fingers twitched and it took be a few seconds to realize he'd been about to reach out for my hand. Why was he always making me so sad? And why did it feel like he was leaving forever when I'd see him in the morning anyway? The door shut and it felt like my heart was caught in the doorframe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated in literal months, I didn't mean to keep anyone waiting this long! I just sort of... dropped this I guess? I plan on picking updates back up, just don't expect it in any less than a month about. I hope you like the chapter, even if you did have to wait ages. Thanks for reading ~ ^u^


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